6.1 Introduction
In the mid-nineteenth century, Rome found itself at a crossroads of tradition and innovation. For centuries the city had been a place where artists came to study antiquity and the Old Masters, yet after the invention of photography in 1839 it also became one of the first centres where the possibilities of the new medium were explored. Its ruins and monuments, together with the international community of painters, sculptors, scholars and travellers, made it an ideal setting for experimentation. At the Caffè Greco, a famous meeting place for artists of all nations, photographers soon gathered as well, sharing methods, debating chemical processes and planning excursions.1 In this environment, the boundaries between established practices and new technology became less clear, and painting, sculpture and photography started to influence one another.
One of the many young artists drawn to the Eternal City was the Dutch painter Laurens Lodewijk Kleyn (1826-1909) [1]. Trained in Antwerp and Amsterdam as a history painter, Kleyn left for Rome in 1851 together with his friends the painter Carel Frans Philippeau (1825-1897) and the sculptor Johan Hendrik Stöver (1825-1911). He would remain in the city for almost two decades, working on commissions, building an extensive network of contacts, and gradually turning to photography alongside his painting.2 His years in Rome show how artists engaged with the new medium not in isolation, but in constant dialogue with the broader artistic and intellectual life of the city. Kleyn’s experiences therefore point to the larger role of Rome as an international meeting ground, where tradition and innovation came together. It was here that the interaction between photography and painting began to take shape.
1
Laurens Lodewijk Kleyn (attributed to),
Self-Portrait as the Apostle Paul, c. 1865-1900,
glass negative,
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. RP-D-00-1131-16